Devils’ Kelly practices but won’t play Friday

The Albany Devils were on the ice for a half hour at Mile One Centre in Newfoundland this morning on the final off day of their American Hockey League playoff series against the St. John’s IceCaps.

Several players were kept out of practice to rest for Friday night’s Game 4, which the Devils will need to win to extend the best-of-five series to a deciding game Saturday night. Defenseman Dan Kelly, who has missed the past two games because of a lower-body injury, was among those who did participate, but coach Rick Kowalsky already has ruled him out for Friday.

“He’s not quite recovered,” Kowalsky said. “Today first day he was actively involved in practice.”

Kowalsky said he did not anticipate any other lineup changes, even among those who sat out of practice.

“We want to keep our hands sharp,” Kowalsky said. “Our execution wasn’t where it needed to be (Wednesday night). We’ll look at an optional tomorrow as a pregame skate.”

Captain Rod Pelley said the afternoon will be spent trying to focus on something other than hockey.

“We had a meeting, went over some video,” Pelley said. “We had a little skate. For the rest of the day here, it’s a nice day out here in St. John’s, guys are going to get lunch, walk around, check out a couple of sites and not think about hockey. Get a good dinner tonight, get some rest and come tomorrow ready to win a hockey game.”

One Response

Rod Pelley is a class act and a totally overlooked reason this team has done a 180 from the past few seasons. They needed legit veteran leadership and found it in him. As fans we can see who was subtracted and added, that made a world of difference. Therer are role players and there are place holders. Albany now knows the difference. Thanks Rod